Insane - Who Are You To Judge? (Gripping Psychological Thriller)

Chapter 78 - Harry

"Hey, hey, hey," James greets Harry enthusiastically. "Ready for some good news? The CCTV from the Sleeping Beauty case is being sent over now. How great is that?"

Harry attempts a half-smile and James immediately catches on.

"What's wrong? Lunch didn't go well?"

Harry sighs and slumps down into James's chair, stroking Bertie. "She wants a divorce. She doesn't think we can be what the other needs."

"Oh, man, I'm sorry. That sucks. How are you feeling?"

Harry thinks about the question. He thinks about it deeply. But he can't come up with an answer. So, he changes the subject. "Fine, let's have a look at this footage, shall we?"

James is quick to catch on to the fact that Harry doesn't want to talk about it and he goes along with the subject change. "Absolutely, I was just downloading it onto my computer so it should be done now. Oh would you look at that," James says as he studies the screen. "It is! Let's catch this bastard, shall we?"

"Sounds good to me," Harry agrees and hits the play button.

They fast-forward through several of the cameras when they show nothing to help the case. They have to go through eleven cameras, so they know they're going to be there for a while. By the ninth, it gets rather hard to stay as focused as they were at camera one, so it isn't surprising when they miss something.

"Wait," Harry suddenly exclaims.

James is startled by his sudden outburst. "I'm getting old, don't give me a heart attack. What have you seen?"

"Just go back to camera nine."

"There wasn't anything on that camera, let's just keep going, we've only got a couple left."

"No," Harry says firmly. "I really think I saw something, can we just go back? It will take two seconds."

James reluctantly agrees and rewinds through camera nine. Harry's eyes are intently fixed on the screen.

"Stop!" he exclaims and James does as he says. He points to a vehicle displayed at the back left corner of the screen. Parked right outside Sleeping Beauty's house. "There, can you zoom in?"

Sighing, James insists, "I really don't think it's anything."

"Just do it."

James takes the image closer in until the vehicle fills the screen. Harry studies the pixelated image.

"James," Harry says with a reservation in his voice. "Is that..." He looks closer before taking himself back from the desk and from James. "James, that's your car."

As soon as Harry says this, James quickly closes down the screen and slowly turns to face Harry, with his mouth open but no sound coming out.

Harry jumps to accusations, the betrayal making his palms twitch. "Why the hell is your car outside the victims' house on the night they were murdered?"

James holds his hands up. "Look, Harry, I didn't want you to see it because it's really not a big deal. I knew how you'd react." James's voice is calm and gentle. "Please don't think anything of it, okay? Let's just go back to the footage and see if we can see this person."

Harry backs away. "Did you see it? Did you see what happened? You were there. I can't believe you were there."

With a more angry voice, James replies, "of course I didn't see it! I know that as a detective you shouldn't believe in coincidences but just this once I'm telling you that it is one. I didn't want to tell you because I thought it would jeopardise the investigation and by the time I'm cleared, we'd have lost our window of catching GR."

Shaking his head, Harry throws his hands over his open mouth and through them he murmurs, "I can't believe this. You've lied to me this entire time. I need to tell Chief." He announces and marches towards the door.

"Chief already knows," James calls. Harry turns back around. "Chief knows. See? I told you not to worry about it. I didn't see anything at all – if I had done, I would've said something. Please, you've got to trust me, okay?"

Harry ponders the idea for a few seconds, but eventually he nods his head reluctantly and walks back over to James.

James thinks Harry has accepted it. James thinks Harry believes him.

James is wrong.